The Edinburgh designer system as a framework for robotics

The Edinburgh Designer System provides a high level of integration of knowledge about function and form for Mechanical Engineering Design. In this paper I discuss the extensions required to make this system suitable for assembly planning, showing that interface modules (eg. a seated-bearing) give rise to the basic acts of assembly, and that, with the provision of a suitable temporal formalism, the detailing of these actions can be accomplished within the Designer System framework.